Tag Archives: caribbean

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World View: Building Collapse, Russia Mandates Vaccination, Chauvin Sentence, More

June 25, 2021

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The Associated Press

The Rundown

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SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — The Champlain Towers South drew people from around the globe to enjoy life on South Florida’s Atlantic Coast, some for a night, some to…Read More

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin learns his sentence Friday for murder in George Floyd’s death, closing a chapter in a case…Read More

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NEW YORK (AP) — Day after day, as the partisan battle lines hardened on Capitol Hill over President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, his calls for bipartisanship…Read More

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MOSCOW (AP) — They tried grocery giveaways and lotteries for new cars and apartments. But an ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June st…Read More

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris faces perhaps the most politically challenging moment of her vice presidency Friday when she heads to the U.S. southern borde…Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

TOKYO (AP) — After months of frustration and delay, Japan has hit the remarkable benchmark of 1 million vaccines a day. But with the Olympics set to start in…Read More

KOH DAMAN, Afghanistan (AP) — For two days the fighting was blistering. Rockets and heavy machine gun fire pounded Imam Sahib, a key district on Afghanistan’…Read More

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Away from the once-maddening crowds of St. Mark’s Square, tiny Certosa island could be a template for building a sustainable future in V…Read More

An FBI agent applied for a federal warrant in 2018 to seize a cache of gold that he said had been “stolen during the Civil War” while en route to the U.S. Mi…Read More

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Rastafari Views Fuel Jamaican Vaccine Hesitancy, Russian Case Surge, World Stats

Reuters
Tasheia Williams feeds her baby after the Sabbath service at the temple of The School of Vision, a Rastafari farming community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova
Children eat peanut butter sandwiches during the Sabbath service, at The School of Vision, a Rastafari community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. Picture taken June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova
Treesha Bailey (L) and Tasheia Williams chant and dance to celebrate the Sabbath in a ceremony known as nyabinghi, at the temple of The School of Vision, a Rastafari farming community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova

Children eat peanut butter sandwiches during the Sabbath service, at The School of Vision, a Rastafari community in the Blue Mountains, near Kingston, Jamaica, on June 19, 2021. Picture taken June 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ina Sotirova

ST ANDREW, Jamaica, June 24 (Reuters) – At a Rastafari farming community high up in the hills above Jamaica’s capital, dreadlocked locals gather at the temple to worship and celebrate with Bible readings and traditional drumming and chanting. No COVID-19 protocols are in place.

This isolated community of around 100 people called the School of Vision has so far escaped the ravages of the pandemic. They credit traditional medicine, like root wine and herbs such as neem, bitterwood and ginger, for helping fend off the virus, and do not want to take the vaccine.

Jamaica has reported around 16,800 infections and 350 deaths per 1 million people, according to statistics compiled by Reuters – lower than many other countries in the region.

But lockdowns to keep the spread in check have taken a toll on the economy, and in particular on the tourism on which the Caribbean island relies, and authorities are keen to secure and roll out vaccines to return to normality.

One challenge they face is scepticism of vaccines, which is widely shared among Jamaica’s Rastafari, who tend to distrust Western medicine and institutions, partly due to a long history of racial injustice.

“There is some danger in (the vaccines) and that is why I am not taking it and not encouraging it,” Dermot Fagon, 66, the dreadlocked priest of the School of Vision, told Reuters. He said he feared it would allow authorities to track people via a microchip, a conspiracy theory that has spread in other parts of the world, too.

Although the School of Vision itself is small and fringe, Rastafari – who account for around 5-10% of Jamaica’s nearly 3 million inhabitants – have an outsized influence on society.

Prominent Rastafari reggae and dancehall artists like Spragga Benz and Cocoa Tea have voiced skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccines, influencing their large followings on social media.

Only 32% of Jamaicans said they would take a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recently published Gallup poll – one of the highest vaccine hesitancy rates worldwide and far below the around 60-70% that World Health Organization experts have estimated is needed to achieve herd immunity.

Jamaica’s government is aware of the Rastafari community’s doubts, and prepared for the reality that not every Jamaican would take the vaccine, Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dunstan Bryan told Reuters.

“Herd immunity can be achieved without having all those populations vaccinated,” he said.

SKEPTICISM

The Rastafari movement developed in Jamaica in the 1930s after a prophecy that a Black man would be crowned king in Africa and Haile Selassie was subsequently made Ethiopian Emperor.

Blending Old Testament Christian prophecy and pan-African political consciousness, Rastafari philosophy and lifestyle became famous around the world through Bob Marley’s reggae songs.

Fagon says he took to the mountains outside the capital Kingston years ago to avoid the ills of modern Western society, which Rastafari refer to as ‘Babylon,’ and live a more natural, harmonious life.

“We don’t like the synthetics,” Patrick Barrett, a popular reggae artist known as Tony Rebel, told Reuters, adding that food was his medicine. “I would prefer the natural order of things.”

Jahlani Niaah, a lecturer of Rastafari studies at the University of the West Indies, said “average Jamaicans have more skepticism” because of Rastafari mistrust. Other groups like evangelical churches are also advising against the vaccines.

Authorities have so far only fully vaccinated some 57,000 people – not even 2% of the population – as they have struggled to obtain the necessary supplies.

For some Rastafari, it’s all just a tall tale.

“It is a false alarm,” popular reggae artist Worin Shaw, 44, known as Jah Bouks, told Reuters. “They are fabricating a lot of things, government and scientists. It is a money-making thing you know.”

Reporting by Kate Chappell in Kingston and Ina Sotirova in St Andrew Writing by Sarah Marsh Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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Russia mandates vaccinations for some as virus cases surge

By DARIA LITVINOVAtoday
People, most of them without face masks, walk at Red Square during sunset in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 24, 2021. An ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June against the coronavirus has fallen short by a third, and the country has started to see a surge in daily new infections. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
People, most of them without face masks, walk at Red Square during sunset in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 24, 2021. An ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June against the coronavirus has fallen short by a third, and the country has started to see a surge in daily new infections. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

MOSCOW (AP) — They tried grocery giveaways and lotteries for new cars and apartments. But an ambitious plan of vaccinating 30 million Russians by mid-June still has fallen short by a third.

So now, many regional governments across the vast country are obligating some workers to get vaccinated and requiring the shots to enter certain businesses, like restaurants.

As many Western countries lift coronavirus restrictions and plan a return to normal life after mass vaccinations, Russia is battling a surge of infections — even though it was the first in the world to authorize a vaccine and among the first to start administering it in December.

Daily new cases have grown from about 9,000 in early June to about 17,000 on June 18 and over 20,000 on Thursday, with Moscow, its outlying region and St. Petersburg combining for about half of all new infections.

Officials have blamed Russians’ lax attitude toward taking necessary precautions and the growing prevalence of more infectious variants. But perhaps the biggest factor is the lack of vaccinations.

Only 20.7 million people, or 14% of its population of 146 million, have received at least one shot as of Wednesday, and only 16.7 million, or about 11%, have been fully vaccinated.

Experts say those numbers are due to several factors, including the public’s wariness of the rushed approval and rollout of the Sputnik V vaccine; an official narrative that Russia had tamed its outbreak; criticism on state TV of other vaccines as dangerous; and a weak promotional campaign that included incentives such as consumer giveaways.

In light of the surge, at least 14 Russian regions — from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the remote far-eastern region of Sakhalin — made vaccinations mandatory this month for employees in certain sectors, such as government offices, retail, health care, education, restaurants, fitness centers, beauty parlors and other service industries.

Moscow authorities said companies should suspend without pay employees unwilling to get vaccinated, and they threatened to temporarily halt operations of businesses that don’t meet the goal of having 60% of staff get at least one shot by July 15 and both shots by Aug. 15.

As of Monday, all Moscow restaurants, cafes and bars will admit only customers who have been vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months, or can provide a negative coronavirus test from the previous 72 hours. City officials also limited most elective hospital care to those who are fully vaccinated or can provide tests showing they have antibodies to fight the infection.

The moves seem to be an act of desperation by authorities.

“They backed themselves into a corner, they have no choice now,” said Judy Twigg, a political science professor specializing in global health at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“They overhyped this vaccine so that people didn’t trust it. Then they took a series of measures that were clearly attempted to make it seem as though the government had everything under control, the pandemic was no big deal. … And now they’re in this situation, not surprisingly, where low vaccination rates have left an opening for the delta variant to come in,” she said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Thursday the vaccinations in Moscow were “voluntary,” because those refusing to get the shot can still seek a different job.

The governor of the southern region of Krasnodar, home to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said hotels and sanitariums will only accommodate vacationers with a negative coronavirus test or a vaccination certificate starting July 1. As of Aug. 1, only vaccinated individuals will be admitted.

The mandates have drawn mixed responses, with some saying they are welcome if they prevent closures of businesses, while other say it’s unclear how employers can persuade those who don’t want the shots.

“Most restaurateurs believe that vaccination is necessary,” said Sergei Mironov, founder of a restaurant chain and vice president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers. “But it is necessary to create (the right) conditions for the vaccination (drive).”

“There are too many rumors, and even doctors say different things,” and convincing younger employees to get vaccinated is especially difficult, he said.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the government’s human rights commissioner, said the unvaccinated have cited discrimination by employers, with threats of dismissal or withholding bonuses.

At a TV awards ceremony Tuesday, popular actor Yegor Beroyev wore a yellow star akin to those worn by Jews under the Nazis in World War II, and he spoke of “waking up in a world where (COVID-19 vaccination) became an identification mark of whether you are a citizen, … will you be able to visit institutions and events, will you enjoy all the benefits and rights.”

As proof of vaccination for entering a restaurant, customers must visit a government website and get a QR code, a digital pattern designed to be read by a scanner.

Restaurant owners won concessions Thursday when Moscow agreed the QR codes aren’t needed for the next two weeks at establishments with outdoor terraces, and underage customers won’t have to provide documentation if accompanied by their parents.

Still, the situation for many restaurants “is hard and will be harder by the day,” Mironov said.

In Moscow, online searches for fake inoculation documents increased shortly after the mayor announced mandatory vaccinations, social anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova told an online lecture on vaccine hesitancy.

Police quickly cracked down, launching 24 criminal cases last week against sellers of fake vaccination certificates. Still, several accounts offering the bogus documents could be found easily on the Telegram messaging app this week.

The number of such offers has grown about 19% every month since March, said Evgeny Egorov, digital risk protection analyst at Group-IB, a Singapore-based cybersecurity company. In mid-June, Group-IB found at least 90 active offers, he said.

The independent pollster Levada Center said polls show about 60% of Russians are unwilling to get vaccinated.

Levada director and sociologist Denis Volkov said the vaccination mandates could change the minds of many because it’s a clear signal from the government that the shots are necessary.

“I often hear (from respondents) that they wouldn’t do it, are afraid and so on, but if there are restrictions, and it is required for travel, state services, or at work, then yes,” Volkov said.

It could be starting to change attitudes. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said the average vaccination rate across Russia has almost doubled in the past week, and long lines have been seen at pop-up vaccination clinics in Moscow shopping malls.

A demand for vaccines could also lead to shortages. As of mid-May, just over 33 million doses were produced in Russia, and a significant amount was exported.

Several regions have reported supply problems this week, but Peskov said those were “temporary logistical difficulties.”

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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

180,833,446

Deaths:

3,917,623

Recovered:

165,465,939
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

June 25 (GMT)

Updates

  • 20,393 new cases and 601 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 215 new cases and 1 new death in Fiji [source]
  • 1,042 new cases and 44 new

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Brazil’s Environment Minister Resigns Over Illegal Amazon Logging

Brazil’s environment minister has quit ahead of a criminal investigation into claims he obstructed a police inquiry into illegal logging in the Amazon.

Ricardo Salles is accused of vouching for the legal origin of a vast haul of timber worth approximately $25m (£18m).

This is despite police evidence that it had been illegally logged.

Mr Salles is also facing a separate investigation into allegations that he was involved in the export of illegal timber to the US and Europe.

“I understand that Brazil throughout this year and next, on the international stage and also nationally, needs to have a strong union of interests,” Mr Salles said on Wednesday. “So that this can be done as smoothly as possible, I have submitted my resignation.”

He has repeatedly defended record on protecting the rainforest, arguing that he had tried to find a balance between mining and agribusiness and the need to safeguard the Amazon.

In 2019, Mr Salles told the BBC: “Brazil has done an excellent job. We have 84% of the Amazon preserved as opposed to many other countries that criticise us, they have no forest anymore.”

Conservationists have blamed the government of President Jair Bolsonaro for turning a blind eye to farmers and loggers clearing land in the Amazon, hastening deforestation.

Mr Salles will be replaced by the ministry’s secretary for the Amazon, Joaquim Alvaro Pereira Leite.

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US: ‘Political Earthquake’ as Major Cities Swing to Black Candidates

Voters are turning to outsider candidates to run their cities in a political earthquake that has ousted incumbents and shattered expectations across the country.

Municipal elections are always rife with local intrigues and upheavals. But this year, many of the outsider candidates who are winning, often over the opposition of the entrenched political class, share a specific trait in common: They are Black.

By the end of this year, there are likely to be more Black mayors among the nation’s 50 largest cities, 12, than there are Republicans, 11. Three of the nation’s four largest cities — New York, Chicago and Houston — will be run by Black elected officials.

Voters in New York City on Tuesday gave more than half of their first-choice votes, in the city’s first experiment with ranked choice voting, to Black candidates.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams (D) won almost 32 percent of the first-round vote in the Democratic mayoral primary, making him the odds-on favorite to win once the remaining rounds of preferences are counted. The only candidate with even an outside chance at overcoming him is Maya Wiley, a former top city official who claimed 22 percent of the initial vote.

If either Adams or Wiley go on to win in November, as expected in the heavily Democratic five boroughs, he or she would be the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city.

But they would not be alone among a class of first-term American mayors that is far more diverse than previous city executives.

Upstate, voters delivered two more knockout blows in primaries: Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown (D) lost his bid for a fifth term to India Walton (D), a self-proclaimed socialist and activist. And Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren (D), beset by scandals, lost her bid for a third term to City Councilman Malik Evans (D).

All four leading candidates in Buffalo and Rochester are Black. But Walton and Evans, like others who have won this year, ran as change agents against an old guard they portrayed as out of touch with their cities in a time of upheaval.

To the south, two more Black candidates upset white incumbents in primary elections in Pennsylvania last month.

State Rep. Ed Gainey (D) pulled off a surprise upset of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (D) as the incumbent sought a third term. In Harrisburg, City Council President Wanda Williams beat Mayor Eric Papenfuse in the Democratic primary.

The more recent rush of a new and more diverse class of American mayors comes after two critical turning points, political observers said: The first was the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, whose campaign was built on grassroots organizing meant to circumvent entrenched party interests and to capitalize on the emergence of social media as a political powerhouse.

“This started with Barack Obama,” said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and a former contributor to Hill.TV. “It’s clear over the last 10 years, new people have come into the process, new infrastructure is supporting them, and barriers to entry are falling.”

The second factor was the social upheaval of 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic coupled with the protests over police brutality in the wake of the murder of George Floyd put a new spotlight on embattled mayors who were at times overwhelmed by their jobs.

“That is an anti-incumbent environment. That is a change environment,” said Lee Harris (D), the mayor of Shelby County, Tenn. “The young up-and-comers might have an advantage because they are more consistent with that change being in the air.”

Even before 2020, Black elected leaders were making substantial progress at the local level. The Democratic nominees, all of whom are favored to win in November, will join a host of big city mayors of color already in office. 

Baltimore and St. Louis both elected new Black mayors to replace retiring incumbents in the last several months. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D), 36 when he took office, is among the youngest ever to run his city. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones (D) is the first Black woman to win the job in her city. 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) won her city’s top office in 2019. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) won reelection the same year. Dallas; San Francisco; Charlotte, N.C.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; and Washington, D.C., are all run by Black mayors. Kim Janey (D), the president of the Boston City Council, has served as acting mayor since Marty Walsh resigned to become President Biden’s Labor Secretary; Janey has said she will run for a full term later this year.

The roster of newly elected mayors does not fit an easy ideological framework: In Rochester, Walton would be the first self-described socialist to win election in an American city since a young Bernie Sanders became mayor of Burlington, Vt., in 1981. In New York City, Adams, a former police officer, was seen as the more conservative, law-and-order choice among a huge field of Democratic contenders.

But most represented substantial change from their predecessors, whether by moving past old scandals, putting a new focus on police misconduct or simply turning the page from lackluster management of a pandemic — and voters’ interest in change now transcends racial lines.

“The first generation of Black mayors were elected in highly racially polarized elections, if you go back to the 1970s,” said Marc Morial, the president of the National Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans. “These Black mayors are getting elected in many of these communities with coalition politics. It’s Black voters plus others.”

Some observers said they saw a parallel with another candidate who benefited greatly from the support of Black voters: Joe Biden. Biden advisers credit his showing among those most loyal — but not the most liberal — Democratic primary voters for his come-from-behind victory in the South Carolina primary in February 2020, a win that catapulted him to his party’s presidential nomination.

“That explains the Biden effect too,” Harris said. “Even if you view him as stable, he’s still the opposite of what you had before.”

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Study Finds Big Drop in US Life Expectancy for Blacks, Hispanics

By Peter Sullivan

The Hill

Life expectancy in the United States declined by the largest amount since World War II between 2018 and 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study finds.

The study published in the British Medical Journal finds that U.S. life expectancy declined by 1.87 years between 2018 and 2020, from 78.74 years to 76.87 years.

The drop in life expectancy was disproportionately high among Black and Hispanic Americans, declining by 3.88 years among Hispanic people and 3.25 years among Black people compared to 1.36 years among white people.

That decline comes as COVID-19 caused more deaths in the U.S. than have been reported in any other country, with the total now more than 600,000.

The U.S. also does not stack up well when compared to a peer group of other high-income countries in the study. The U.S. life expectancy decline was 8.5 times the drop in peer countries (0.22 years), increasing the gap between the U.S. and peer countries to 4.69 years.

“The US had a much larger decrease in life expectancy between 2018 and 2020 than other high income nations, with pronounced losses among the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black populations,” the authors write.

Richard Besser, former acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now the president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said the results should be a wake-up call.

“For decades, the US has been losing ground in life expectancy to other wealthy nations, and these findings show that the gap widened even more due to Covid-19,” he said in a statement. “The study further confirms that how long people live in the United States depends in large part on income, skin color, and geography.”

“We must use this moment to correct the mistakes of the past and create a fairer and more just future,” he added.

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Jamaica’s Entertainment Sector to Partially Reopen July 1st

by Amelia Robinson and Sheri-Kae McLeod

 

Despite the pandemic, Jamaicans are in for a sweet treat of freedom come July 1st. In a presentation in parliament on June 22, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced a partial reopening of the island’s entertainment sector as well as an adjustment to the islandwide curfew.

Jamaica has had almost 50,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 1,000 deaths.

Come July 1st, the curfew will run from 11 PM to 5 AM from Mondays to Saturdays and 6 PM to 5 AM on Sundays. After 15 months of a ban on parties, promoters will finally be allowed to host events, with a maximum of 100 people for small events. The organizers of large events, which include stage shows, crusades, festivals and the likes, will have to go through an additional layer of approval.

Organizers of the large events must first send an application to the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport. The Ministry will review the application to see that it meets the requirements.

Once the Ministry is satisfied, it will forward the application to the ODPEM. ODPEM will consult Ministry of Health and Wellness, the municipal corporation & any other relevant authorities, and if they are satisfied, the application for the event to be held at a specified place and time will be approved.

Unlike some cities in the United States, the government said it will not mandate that patrons attending events be vaccinated or provide a negative COVID-19 test. Organizers are however allowed to do so if they want to

Municipal corporations will be reducing the events permit fee by 50 percent. Prime Minister Holness also announced that government-owned venues will be offered to the organizers of large events rent-free.

The list of venues so far includes:

Facilities under the management of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport including the National Stadium complex and the Trelawny Stadium, Fort Rocky and Fort Charles, Seville and the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, Facilities under the management of the Port Authority of Jamaica including the Falmouth Pier and the Port Royal Pier.

Prime Minister Holness urged Jamaicans to be responsible with the new measures.

“In trying to preserve the entertainment sector let us not jeopardize the reopening of our schools in September. The stakes are high and this is a risk we are all taking together as a country. Success is up to every one of us. Let us therefore not view the new measure as a free for all. Let us commit to being responsible and diligent as we seek to preserve the livelihoods of so many people,” he said.

To test out the new protocols, the Government will be organizing a concert on July 1 at the Port Royal Cruise Terminal to recognize and celebrate International Reggae Day.

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Miami Building Collapse: Search for Dead, Injured

BBC- A huge rescue operation is under way in Miami-Dade County, Florida, after a 12-storey residential building partially collapsed, killing at least one person.

Rescuers are combing through the rubble, searching for survivors, and were seen pulling a boy out alive.

Images from Surfside, north of Miami Beach, show a pile of debris on one side of the building.

One person died, at least eight people were injured and there are fears that others are trapped, US media report.

The collapse is said to have occurred at around 02:00 (06:00 GMT).

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said they had sent 80 vehicles to the scene. Police are also assisting with the rescue operation.

The death of a woman was reported by an Associated Press reporter, quoting their own sources. Florida news site Local 10 also reported a death, quoting fire rescue officials.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter
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‘Like a storm or something coming in’

Police gave the building’s location as 8777 Collins Avenue, the address of the 12-storey Champlain Towers, which contains more than 100 beachfront apartments and was built in 1981.

Surfside runs along Collins Avenue, north of Miami Beach city limits.

Champlain TowersIMAGE COPYRIGHTGOOGLE STREET VIEW
Champlain Towers as it looked before the collapse

Santo Mejil, 50, was woken when his wife called from a unit on the ninth floor of one of the three buildings that make up Champlain Towers. She is an overnight caretaker for an elderly disabled woman.

“She said she heard a big explosion,” Mr Mejil told the Miami Herald. “It felt like an earthquake.” His wife was among those rescued.

Rescuers in SurfsideIMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
Hundreds of rescuers are involved
Rescuers in SurfsideIMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
A crane was used to reach neighbouring balconies

A man who lives in a neighbouring building described what happened for CBS: “The building shook and then I looked out the window and you couldn’t see, I thought it was like a storm or something coming in.

“When the dust cleared, the back two-thirds of the building was gone, it was down to the ground.”

Map

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T&T Sends Aid to Flood Ravaged Suriname

The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has sent critical relief supplies to Suriname, following torrential rainfall and flooding experienced by that country in the months of April, May and June 2021.

According to an official release issued by the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, relief items were transported yesterday, Tuesday 22nd June 2021, via a Caribbean Airlines aircraft leased by Suriname Airways.

“Relief items included garbage bags, baby food, face masks, long boots, mosquito nets, tarpaulin, cots and chargeable battery-operated lamps,” the Foreign Ministry confirms.

The Ministry says additional relief items such as water, hand sanitizer and water tanks will be provided later in the week and transported by sea.

The weather system which passed through the region over the last couple of days has further exacerbated the situation in Suriname.

The Government of the Republic of Suriname reached out to T&T for assistance, at a time when Suriname is dealing with a major flooding emergency, as well as battling another surge in COVID-19 infections—its third wave in the pandemic.

At the beginning of June, the head of the Meteorological Service Suriname (MDS) warned of even more rain to come in Suriname over the next three months, as the Caribbean settles deeper into the Hurricane Season.

Flooding in April, May and June affected all ten districts of Suriname: Paramaribo, Nickerie, Coronie, Saramacca, Commewijne, Wanica, Para, Marowijne, Sipaliwini, and Brokopondo.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has confirmed that some 10,100 people from 2,020 families—at least 8,473 households—across the country have been affected by the flooding crisis.
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UN Vote: Iran Calls US Cuban Blockade a Negative Impact on Global Peace

TEHRAN (FNA)- Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Zahra Ershadi warned that the US unilateral sanctions against independent states would leave negative impacts on global peace.

Addressing a UN meeting on Wednesday, Ershadi cautioned of the adverse effects that unilateral US sanctions have on international peace as the world body’s General Assembly adopts a resolution against the nearly 60-year-old US economic embargo on Cuba.

She said on Wednesday that the US embargo inflicts hardship and suffering on Cubans, specially women and children, leading to harmful consequences for the country’s financial, banking, commercial, investment, tourism, health, educational and cultural sectors.

“Unilateral and coercive US sanctions have adverse effects on the promotion of regional and international peace. They are also a fundamental obstacle to the establishment of world peace, prosperity and an international justice system, which are vital preconditions for sustainable development,” Ershadi said.

“For many years, the General Assembly has decisively voted in favor of resolutions calling for the lifting of US sanctions against Cuba. It has expressed its solidarity with the Cuban government and people, but the United States has over the past six decades slapped economic, trade, and financial bans that violate international law as well as its obligations under the UN Charter.”

Ershadi said that the Islamic Republic has, over the past four decades, experienced illegal US sanctions, which have even targeted the imports of medicines and medical equipment into the country.

Through sanctions, the US not only violates the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but also punishes other countries which honor their own commitments, she added.

At a time when all nations are mobilizing their efforts to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the US coercive measures have severely hampered the fight against the disease.

“The international community must work to find solutions to counter such destructive and unilateral interventions. The Islamic Republic of Iran believes in cooperation with friendly countries such as Cuba to meet this challenge,” the Iranian diplomat said.

“The US should immediately and fully comply with its international obligations and cease all its coercive unilateral measures,” she added.

In the meeting held in-person on Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an end to the US embargo on Cuba.

The motion was approved for the 29th year in a row with 184 votes in favor, three abstentions and two no votes cast by the US and Israel.

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World View: US Missing Target, Black Pandemic Drug Use, Britney Spears, More

June 24, 2021

Alternate text

The Associated Press

 

The Rundown

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Standing in the State Dining Room on May 4, President Joe Biden laid out a lofty goal to vaccinate 70% of American adults by Independence Day, saying the U.S. would need to overcome “doubters” and laziness to do it….Read More

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — She screamed and cried, banged on the dashboard, begging her husband to drive faster, faster, faster toward her brother lying face-down on his bedroom floor. Craig Elazer had struggled all his life with anxiety so b…Read More

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John McAfee, the outlandish security software pioneer who tried to live life as a hedonistic outsider while running from a host of legal troubles, was found dead in his jail cell near Barcelona on Wednesday. …Read More

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced new efforts Wednesday to stem a rising national tide of violent crime, declaring the federal government is “taking on the bad actors doing bad things to our communities.” But questions …Read More

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — After 13 years of near silence in the conservatorship that controls her life and money, Britney Spears passionately told a judge Wednesday that she wants to end the “abusive” case that has made her feel demoralized…Read More

OTHER TOP STORIES

VATICAN CITY (AP) — While Pope Francis is usually the star at Vatican gatherings, Spider-Man, or at least an Italian who dresses up like the character, was the attention-g…Read More

What should I know about the delta variant? It’s a version of the coronavirus that has been found in more than 80 countries since it was first detected in India. It got it…Read More

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia previewed a showdown with the United Nations, United States and Western nations Wednesday over the delivery of humanitarian aid to rebel-held …Read More

HONG KONG (AP) — Across Hong Kong, people lined up early Thursday to buy the last print edition of the last remaining pro-democracy newspaper. By 8:30 a.m., Apply Daily’s…Read More

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